Rare 500-Year-Old Wooden Clog Found in Alkmaar

(Patria) - The Dutch are known worldwide for their wooden clogs, but a recent rare discovery of a 500-year-old shoe in the city of Alkmaar has shown how widespread the use of such footwear once was.

- It was found in a cesspit in an urban environment. This is very special, because with wooden shoes you always think of farmers who used clogs during their work.

But this was actually found in an urban context. They used this type of footwear for everyday use - archaeologist Silke Lange told Reuters.

The wooden shoe was found in a cesspit discovered last month during the construction of an underground waste container in Alkmaar, about 30 kilometres northwest of Amsterdam.

- The cesspit was used as a toilet and for waste disposal from approximately 1450 to 1558 - the archaeologists said.

The clog, European size 36, is estimated to have been made in the late 15th or early 16th century.

It is the first shoe found in the Netherlands made from birch wood and one of only 44 wooden shoes found during excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium.